Table buffers

Each procedure has its own table buffer for each table in the application. This allows a procedure to access any table in the application. The procedure’s table buffers exist only as long as the procedure is running.

Using form table buffers

To use a form’s table buffer (the form where the calling script is located), the table buffer must be passed as an inout parameter to the procedure. After the form’s table buffer has been passed to the procedure, the procedure will actually be using the form’s table buffer, not just a copy of the contents of the table buffer.

Example

This example shows how a table buffer is passed to and used in a procedure. The table buffer passed is the table buffer used by the form where the calling script is located. The table buffer must be passed as an inout parameter.

inout table Customer_Data;

warning 'Customer Name' of file Customer_Data + " has an unpaid balance.";

The following script calls the Balance_Warning procedure, passing the table buffer for the Customer_Data table to the procedure. The Customer Name field in the table buffer is used in the warning message.

call Balance_Warning, table Customer_Data;

Local anonymous tables

In a procedure script, you have the flexibility to open a table based upon its name, rather than by passing the table buffer into the script or explicitly stating the table name in the script. You do this by declaring a local anonymous table for the procedure and using the open table statement and the with name clause to open a table. Anonymous means that the name of the table being opened isn’t known when the procedure is written. The ability to open a table by name is useful for routines such as table maintenance, when you want to specify which table to perform maintenance on at runtime.

Example

This example counts records in a named table. A table name is passed into the procedure as a string. A local anonymous table is declared. The table is opened using the open table statement and the with name clause. The procedure returns the number of records in the table as an out parameter.

in string table_name;
out long record_count;

local anonymous table working_table;

{Open the table named in the table_name in parameter.}
open table working_table with name table_name;

record_count = countrecords(table working_table);

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